Monday, February 09, 2015

One of my favourite sites on the interwebs is Helen Day's Ladybird Fly Away Home which is entirely devoted to the marvels that are Ladybird books (if you read them as a child you really must nip along and take a look, follow her on Twitter where she regularly tweets Ladybird artwork, and also at Helen's blog). Happily, Helen runs the site from her shed, as she explains for Shedworking:

"My husband doesn’t have a shed. In an act of supreme self-sacrifice he let me have our big, beautiful shed to house my Ladybird Book collection once it had outgrown the house. My collection is vast and keeps me busy in a number of ways; I write a blog, a website and use Twitter to spread the Ladybird-Word. I contribute to TV and radio programmes, books, articles and exhibitions on the subject and sell some of my swaps so for all of these reason I spend a great deal of time in my shed, organising, researching and writing about my books (or ‘playing’, my husband would say).

"We acquired the shed second-hand from our local garden centre. The price was affordable because we had to dismantle it, transport it and reassemble in the garden. Husband lavished time and effort on insulating, ventilating, heating and wiring and in a short time it became my favourite place to work. There’s something about the light and space and smell of wood and proximity to the garden. Though sparcely furnished, the books take the edge off the echos. It is never too hot in summer and in winter we heat it just enough to be able to protect the books from extreme cold.

"I don’t know if husband regrets his act of generosity, but I rather suspect he does."